My sword! My sword!
There is an interesting story about the LOTR movie and the making of the weapons used by the main characters. He explained why Aragon’s sword has a dagger in the scabbard. The reason is that the weapon’s maker pointed out that no real soldier would use their sword for mundane, about camp tasks. That is, the weapons are kept for combat use only.
An interesting observation, really. The professional military have weapons uniquely designed and used for the bloody business of war and killing. Not so amateurs or conscripted peasants and others. In past times, they would be lucky if they were given a sword or other weapon. And these would be of very poor quality. Most were expected to supply their own weapons. Militaries providing weapons is a comparatively modern development. One that followed the creation of citizen armies after the French Revolution. Consider the minutemen of the American War of Independence. They brought their own weapons to the fight. Given that many parts of the New Colonies were wild places, not to say the ever present threat of hostile Indians, carrying and being able to use a musket was mandatory.
But what of earlier times? Lords would force peasants and rude mechanics into their armies. This levee would be equipped with a variety of farming and other tools. Scythes are referred to. Quite a dangerous weapon on an unarmed or even armoured soldier if the armour was leather of linen. However, these farmers lacked the fighting skills of most professional or experienced soldiers. One wonders how they fared before they were killed. One supposes these untrained “soldiers” purpose was to wear out their opponents so as to exhaust them to make them easier to deal with by the more experienced soldiers who herded them forward.
The experience of Alexander the Great at Battle of Gaugamela is interesting. He led a very professional and battle-hardened if small force. The Persian lord Darius led a polyglot army from different parts of the empire. Given the size of the assembled army and the previous defeats Darius had suffered, despite its size and probably outnumbering Alexander’s Macedonians 2:1, it was a crushing defeat for the Persians, with probably 40 000 casualties as against 500 infantry and about 1000 cavalry on Alexander’s side.
Professionalism and equipment matters. One of the interesting little titbits George R.R. Martin includes in his SOIAF books is the amount of, and the nature of the practice professional soldiers went through. All part of his scene setting and designed to explain the different “performance” of the professionals as against the “levees” and others.
The takeaway here is, in writing about characters who are not trained professionals, one should not simply give them a sword and, “Hey, ho,” they are twirling it around like a trained fencer. Unless there is a good backstory to explain the individual’s proficiency with the weapon. It is unrealistic and will annoy readers at a minimum.
Perhaps this stricture applies less to archery if the individual is familiar with the weapon. To be a bowman requires years of practice. Now, non-military individuals may have a very good reason to be adept with bow and arrow as it is a favoured weapon for hunting. Hence, the son of a farmer might well be quite proficient with the bow. On the other hand, experinence and ability with the crossbow is much less likely. It is, relative to the bow, a complex weapon and likely the domain of nobles for hunting, given it requires less skill and practice than the bow.
Pikes, spears, and the like are stabbing weapons. What experience is needed in their use will vary on what is being asked of these long weapon users. The most difficult skill and the least likely levees will have is that they are best used en masse to provide a bristle of points that deter and demoralise an enemy and keep cavalry at bay.
Thrown weapons require experience. Some hunters might have the skill if the javelin (or equivalent) is their favoured way of killing game. If used, they tend to be for skirmishing purposes, as the Romans did, to disorganise and distract an attacker before the main force of infantry came into contact. An untrained peasant probably wouldn’t be a very effective skirmisher.
Slings make a good weapon. But it requires quite a lot of training and it puts them in the same category as bows. It is interesting that both Punic and Roman armies had mercenary units of Balaeric slingers rather than trained their own people for the weapon, despite its obvious effectiveness when used for massed fires.
A character’s ability or lack of it at arms will be part of their backstory and not an instant skill if presented with a weapon. Not until firearms can a relatively untrained individual simply pick up a weapon and use it effectively. Knowing this limitation will both make for a more realistic portrayal of the world in which the character lives and presents a real obstacle to achieiving their goals. Does the character live in pre-independence America? Then some proficiency with certain weapons is likely. Have they grown up on a farm? Or in a town? Why would they have skill at arms? Is there a village or town militia? An so on…